British Airways yesterday announced two services yesterday – the launch of a three times a week service from London Gatwick to Toronto, and the resumption of a Gatwick to Las Vegas route
The new routes will be summer-only routes. Let’s look at Toronto first
BA2271 DEPART LGW 11:55 ARRIVE YYZ 14:45 Tuesdays, Fridays, Sundays BA2270 DEPART YYZ 19:45 ARRIVE LGW 07:50+1 Tuesdays, Fridays, Sundays Commences: 1st May 2018 Booked Equipment: British Airways Boeing 777 (Gatwick Configuration) Data: British Airways
This will be British Airways first Canadian service from London Gatwick
Meanwhile, the airline will resume its Gatwick to Las Vegas route on a three times a week operation, with the airline planning the following
BA2277 DEPART LGW 11:55 ARRIVE LAS 14:45 Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays BA2276 DEPART LAS 16:35 ARRIVE LGW 10:35+1 Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays Commences: 27th March 2018 Services operate 5 minutes earlier on Tuesdays Booked Equipment: British Airways Boeing 777 (Gatwick Configuration) Data: British Airways
I’ve added the words “Gatwick Configuration” to the equipment notes – mainly as these tend to be three-class planes. In addition, plans are afoot to densify these planes with the refits to be introduced in 2018.
These are made up of:
- 32 Club World seats (Business Class) in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 48 World Traveller Plus seats (Premium Economy) in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 332 World Traveller seats (Economy) in a 3-4-2 configuration
These routes follow on from the introduction of routes to Oakland and Fort Lauderdale.
Lead-in fares start at £453 between London Gatwick and Toronto. For those who want to roll the dice in Las Vegas (or spend hours in a dark conference room), you can spin the wheel at £699 upwards.
Sean Doyle, British Airways’ director of networks and alliances, states
“Gatwick has always offered a great range of long-haul destinations, but adding Toronto and Las Vegas to the summer schedule will take the number of transatlantic routes to 21, making Canada, the US and the Caribbean more accessible than ever before.
It’s particularly exciting to be adding Canada to the list of places our customers will be able to explore from Gatwick, and we look forward to welcoming our Canadian customers in to London.”
So, what to make of this then? If anyone can say British Airways is fighting for seats and bums on seats, you’d be right.
The Gatwick to Las Vegas pair is served by Virgin Atlantic and Norwegian Air Shuttle (seasonal service). Meanwhile, the Toronto route is contested by WestJet and Air Transat.
Apart from Virgin Atlantic, British Airways will compete with Lower cost carriers on these routes. Whilst I doubt British Airways is “running scared” of them, there surely must be a concern for the airline to launch these routes.
Of course, if British Airways really wanted to compete – this would have been the perfect opportunity to launch LEVEL in the United Kingdom… but it doesn’t seem the airline is ready to cannibalise its Gatwick operation in the flight against the low cost carriers.
Yet.
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